World Club Champion FootballWorld Club Champion Football (WCCF) is a Japanese collectible card
game and football/soccer sports arcade game produced by Sega. The
player assembles a squad by collecting and trading specially marked
cards, produced by Panini. The player then selects a team and manage
it, playing simulated football matches on an arcade machine taking
part in friendly, league and cup competitions.
The squad managed by the player can consist of up to 16 footballer
cards with the data stored on a player's smart card, commonly known as
an IC. The IC can store up to 150 matches worth of data; once the
maximum number of matches has been reached the player has an option to
transfer their statistics to a new IC.
Footballer cards are registered by starting a game and laying the
cards down on a special matted table that identifies the card allowing
the game to retrieve the footballers attributes from a database.
Players can issue commands to his team during a match, change the
team's formation, talk to individual team members or in pairs in a
virtual manager's office and train the team up to six areas of skill:
Offense, Defence, Passing, Possession, Speed, and Power.

History[edit]
The first major version of the game was based on the top division of
Italian football, the Serie A, and was released in
JapanJapan in 2002.[1]
The teams included were those that participated in the competition
during the previous footballing year; the player data being based on
performances during that 2001–02 season. An updated version of the
game was released in 2003 with gameplay fixes/adjustments also added
32 black/white and 13 foil player cards.
With the success of the game,
SegaSega went on to produce a second major
version of the game, again devoted to Serie A, that was released in
2003.[2] The teams and players included were those that participated
in the 2002–03 season. As with the 2001–02 version the 2002–03
version was also updated several months later to include gameplay
updates and additional players consisting of 32 black/white and 43
foil player cards. The 2002–03 season version of WCCF was the first
version that was released outside of
AsiaAsia by being made available in
Italy.
After a brief hiatus, Sega's next major new version of the game was
released in late 2005.[3] This time, the game was not dedicated to
Serie ASerie A and instead was based on the top divisions of four countries
in Europe: the English Premier League, Dutch Eredivisie, Spanish La
Liga, and Italian Serie A. The teams included in this European Clubs
version of the game was based the 2004–05 season and
SegaSega started
distributing the game more widely outside of Asia; the countries
included the Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, the UAE and the
UK.
The successful expansion of the game was followed by a sequel to the
European Clubs version in late 2006.[4] This time, the game included
teams from six countries in Europe: England, France (Ligue 1), Germany
(Bundesliga), Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, with footballer data
based on performances from the 2005–06 season.
The game has further expanded to span two continents (
EuropeEurope and South
America) in the Intercontinental Clubs 2006–07 version released in
2008[5] but the it ceased to be distributed outside of Asia.
The game is subsequently updated with yearly versions in Japan.
Player Card[edit]
As mentioned, there are over 1,000 different cards in the game. Some
players have different versions of themselves in the game. Player
cards are classed in four different types of cards.
The first type is a White card. This type of card carries a standard
player; for example,
Igor TudorIgor Tudor of Juventus. He would be considered in
the game to have normal wage in the game and have the abilities of an
average player in the team.
The second type of card is a Black card. This card carries a better
player, such as
Michael OwenMichael Owen or Ronaldo. Their wages in the game
increase but their skills increase as well.
The third type of card is a Foil or known to the WCCF community as a
"shiny". These carry the superstars of the footballing world. When
held up to the light, the card's background changes colour. Each
grouping of cards have different coloured frames to show the different
classes of player.
There are plenty of versions of Foil cards reaching as far back in the
game as the 2001–02 season. These cards appear less in the game and
are more rare than a black or a white card.
The fourth and most precious of cards is the Legend and All-time
Legend cards. These cards are very rare and feature some of the best
players ever to grace the game of football. These cards carry huge
wage bills, but they also have very rare qualities in playing the
game. Just like the foil cards, the Legend and All-time Legend cards
are considered to be "Shiney" with a mainly gold appearance to the
card. Once again, when light hits the cards at a certain angle, the
colour changes slightly.
Game structure[edit]
The game follows a schedule with teams playing league format broken up
by complete cup tournaments. The game originally consisted only of one
league division but the season 2005-2006 version introduced a second
and so the requirement for promotion; promotion is given to a team in
the first 2 positions in the league.
To enter the International Club Cup a player must have earned 1 or 10
million of the local in-game currency. To enter the Champions Trophy
and Continental Cup require a minimum finish in the top 4 or 6
positions respectively in Regular League 1. Participation in the Japan
Trophy requires the winning of the Champions Trophy, the Continental
Super Cup requires the success in the Continental Cup and the National
Super Cup requires winning the King's Cup. Entry into the U-5
Championship requires a team following the U-5 regulations.
References[edit]

Official web site (English)
Official web site (Italian)
Official web site (Japanese)
Official website for 2007-2008 (Japanese)
Official website for 2006-2007 (Japanese)
Official website for 2005-2006 (Japanese)
Official website for 2004-2005 (Japanese)
Official website for 2002-2003 (Japanese)
Official website for 2001-2002 (Japanese)
The Unofficial UK fansite and forum: a large community of players from
all over the world
Unofficial Singapore WCCF forum section (English)